Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Yes, that understanding is built into how users collaborativley manage
themselves here. Consider, for example, the "Backstage" conference.
  

    
An underlying theme to the book and much of this discussion is the
distance between what we hoped the Net would be and what it is.
Howard (hlr) posted a link on Twitter yesterday to one of Doug
Englebart's last visions for the Internet, shared at Google:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxWhDjUmHhD6a1l2LVgweUtBTmM/view

Always get worked up when I read anything by Doug Englebart :)

As Howard says, "what it is, is up to us".

Joseph, as a long time observer and interpreter of digital culture,
what specifically do you see on the horizon, specifically for
comments, but also for all of digital culture? How much do you
think, augmented, virtual and mixed realities will change things?
  

    
<joseph-reagle> I apologize for my silence. Life has been
interfering with my net time, including any brain space for
thoughtful response. 

I don't teach the course any more, but I have archives of it. Some
of the key material has been reframed and combined with others for
the University of Capetown's Online Facilitation course for
educators.

I really wish I had done more analysis and harvesting before I shut
down the site. (At least I THINK it is shut down. Now I realize I
should go look!!!)
  

    
Damn, looking at all my backup files from those days ... everything
appears to be gone. I must have messed up at one point in my backup
procedures. Darn.
  

    
(tcn): "the right not to listen": Do you go back to Usenet days? We
had really nice "kill filters" back then that I haven't seen even
partially achieved in today's age.
  

    
(jonl) in that 2008 essay, Xeni noted that Boing Boing did two
things: "We hired a community manager, and equipped our comments
system with a secret weapon: the 'disemvoweller.'" It's important to
note that tech fix (the "disemvoweller") was a fad, but "human
hands" are not---they are just "expensive." This is a point also
made by Clay Shirky ("big, cheap, good, choose two") and Ta-Nehisis
Coates (comments are a garden that needs tending and weeding). I do
think tools can help us.  But as (clm) noted, this is harder than it
looks. And the degree to which digital technology has "helped"
humans, it has enabled human behaviors that are good and bad. So
(tcn) for the future, I think it's a matter of appreciating
Englebart's points of technology "augmenting" the human but not
supplanting it. We are social animals, that can cooperate and be
cruel. So we must consider how tools can augment each, and hopefully
grow as humans and as a culture. This is why I use Rheingold's "Net
Smart" in my "Communication in the Digital Age" class. We need to be
smart about technology, not just have smarter technology.
  

    

(Which reminds me that a few weeks ago someone suggested that Donald Trump's
candidacy was "like a comments section running for President.")
  

    
The Well has filters. The official ones provide a reasonably
dignified notification that user so-and-so was filtered. But some of
the unofficial filters are free-form.
  

    
BTW: (tnf) I enjoyed Adams' recent take on Trump as a "clown genius"
who is a master of persuasion and the deal.

http://blog.dilbert.com/post/126589300371/clown-genius
  

    
Trump has the stage, and had access to it easily enough, which
helped. If you're in a community of commenters posting a firehose of
remarks, can you grab the stage? 
  

    
That article by Scott Adams is very much worth reading. Not to
mention depressing.
  

    
Interesting. Thanks for the link!
  

    
Trump is a great court jester, but I can't imagine what he'll be
like if he takes himself seriously as a contender. There has to be a
financial ulterior motive to this. 
  

    <scribbled by tcn Sat 26 Sep 15 11:24>
  

    
scribbled #89 (poorly worded)

"Instead of hyping digital natives or decrying a generation of
narcissists, we need to find ways to develop a robust self-esteem
that can handle ubiquitous comment, an attention that is resistant
to digital temptation, and relationships that are safeguarded from
the colonizing logic of quantification." (pg. 148)

That's a great summation and three point plan. I will try to put it
into concentrated practice. Think I'm kinda weak on the first two -
lose on 'robust' and 'temptation' - pretty good on the last one
though.
  

    
(tcn) Thanks Ted :-)
  

    
While today is set as the last day for this discussion, you can of
course continue if you have more to say. Meanwhile we extend our
thanks to Joseph Reagle and appreciation of his willingness to spend
the last couple of weeks here. His very good book, _Reading the
Comments_, especially relevant to those of us who spend a lot of
time in online discussions, is available at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Comments-Likers-Haters-Manipulators/dp/026202893
X/
  

    
Thanks Jon, and thank you to the WELL members who contributed their
thoughtful questions. I might not remember to look back here often,
but feel free to tweet or send me an email!
  

    
That would be @jmreagle for you tweeters. Thanks Joseph and Jon,
this was fun.
  

    
Yes. Thanks.
  

    
Thank you, Joseph. Enjoyed the book and the discussion, both.